Petition against public financing of the FECRIS

To the attention of : French Prime Minister

FECRIS (Fйdйration Europйenne des Centres de Recherche et dInformation sur les Sectes - European Federation Research and Information Centers on Cults) was created in 1994. It is a European organization composed of groups coming from various European countries fighting against new religious movements.

In 2001, the FECRIS greeted the promulgation of the About-Picard law with these words : A very important law has been promulgated, lets specifically thank the associations fighting against cults for their work.

We remind you that this law, inspired by the offence of plagio (psychological subjection) created under Mussolini, had been sharply criticized by the International Federation of Helsinki. The Council of Europe, with resolution 1309, also invited the government to reconsider this law. Only countries like Iran (to justify the repression against Bahais) and China (to justify the repression against Falun Gong) greeted the About-Picard law !


While the FECRIS claims to protect the family and the individual, we have many testimonies of people who have been deprived of some of their fundamental rights because of discriminations resulting from a social climate widely influenced by the false or distorted information conveyed by associations members of the FECRIS. Janine Taverniers statement, when resigning from her post as president of the UNADFI, very clearly sums up the climate of intolerance and the role of the anti-cults associations : When one has a grudge against ones neighbor, one accuses him of being a member of a cult.

The FECRIS is one of the 62 associations and foundations funded in 2006 by the General Secretariat of the French government (under the authority of the Prime Minister). They received a 50.000 subsidy. UNADFI, a member of FECRIS, received a 110.000 subsidy from the General Secretariat of the government.

We, signers of this petition, want to state that a secular State, respecting religious creeds and guaranteeing freedom of religion, must not take part to the fight against new religious movements by funding militant associations. Such public subsidies have been denied by many democracies. Consequently, we ask the General Secretariat of the French government to stop funding FECRIS and UNADFI.